The Kingston Centre (originally Kingston Shopping Centre) was an indoor mall built in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

in 1955 and demolished in 2004. The Kingston Centre name now belongs to a . campus-style open-air shopping centre on the same site, which replaced the now-demolished indoor mall. Anchored by the Loblaws supermarket, the current Kingston Centre is, like its predecessor, located beside a

Canadian Tire Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a Canadian retail company which operates in the automotive, hardware, sports, leisure and housewares sectors. Its Canadian operations include: Canadian Tire (including Canadian Tire Petroleum gas stations a ...

store and bordered by Sir John A. Macdonald Blvd,

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and Princess Street.

History

The Kingston Shopping Centre was built in 1955 and anchored by

Simpsons-Sears Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears� ...

(later

Sears Canada Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as Simpsons-Sears� ...

) department store. It was located at 1100 Princess Street in what was then the west end of the city, and served as one of two main transfer points for all

Kingston Transit Kingston Transit operates the transit service in Kingston, Ontario, Canada as well as to the neighbouring community of Amherstview, in Loyalist Township. Major transfer points are at the Kingston Centre, Downtown Kingston (at the corner of Bagot ...

routes and the starting point for the city's annual

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. Originally an outdoor mall, it was converted to an enclosed indoor mall in 1970-71, and once boasted 78 stores including the two-storey

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

and a

Loblaws Loblaws Inc. is a Canadian supermarket chain with stores located in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Loblaws is a subsidiary of Loblaw Companies Limited, C ...

supermarket. The Kingston Shopping Centre retained the title of largest shopping centre in the area until the

Cataraqui Town Centre Cataraqui Centre, (formerly "Cataraqui Town Centre") is a shopping mall located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest mall in southeastern Ontario with over 141 stores. The anchor store is a Hudson's Bay, There is also a vacant anchor s ...

was constructed in 1982 in the former Kingston Township. Before then, its closest rival was the

Frontenac Mall Frontenac may refer to: People *Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France Places Canada Quebec *Château Frontenac, hotel in Quebec City *Frontenac, Quebec * Frontenac County, Quebec *Frontenac (Montreal Metro), Montreal Metro station * ...

, built in 1967 as Kingston's first enclosed mall with 57 stores, anchored by

Woolco Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its ...

. Kingston Shopping Centre's retail traffic, once brisk, sharply declined after the relocation of Sears to the Cataraqui Town Centre in 1999. The Loblaws supermarket, relocated into a new building constructed on the site of the former Sears store, became sole anchor. This move, combined with the disappearance of smaller department stores including

Biway Stores Dylex Limited was one of Canada's largest retailers during the 1970s and 1980s, where it operated a number of specialty retail stores, including women's wear, men's wear, and family stores, including BiWay, a large, and now defunct, Canadian dis ...

, Family Fair,

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

Zellers Zellers was a Canadian discount department retail chain and is currently a brand name owned by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Founded in 1931 in London, Ontario, in later decades it was based in Brampton, Ontario. Zellers was acquired by HBC i ...

and Woolworth, left Kingston Shopping Centre without a department store anchor. With one end of the mall a grocery store, the opposite end of the mall (which originally held Loblaws and a food court) was left as an empty ghostbox and eventually boarded up; it was the first section to be razed during the demolition of the remaining indoor mall building in 2004. Fewer than a dozen retail tenants remained at the time of demolition: a barber shop, a

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, two banks, a grocery store, a drugstore, a camera store and a restaurant. These businesses were moved to new buildings constructed in what had been the parking lot of the original indoor mall and remain in operation. The former department store site is currently occupied by the Loblaws grocery store building, with the rest of the greyfield re-used for new retail construction or left vacant. No part of the original mall structure remains. A large portion of land at the south-western section of the property, vacated by demolition of the original mall, is as yet undeveloped. The area near the mall includes a large number of apartment buildings built in the 1960s and '70s, with a high percentage of senior citizen residents who made up a large portion of the mall's clientele. Some have complained that the site is "not as pedestrian-friendly as they (the developers) guaranteed it was going to be."

Bus terminal

Kingston Centre Transfer Point is located in the heart of the shopping centre and is a major transfer point for

. It is the terminus for daytime routes 2, 3, 11 and 12 with routes 4 and 16 passing through. Routes 501/502 and 701/702 also connect with the Kingston Centre through nearby road stops.

Anchors & majors

* Rexall Pharma Plus

References

Kader, M. The Transit Village: A Case Study of Kingston Centre. Kingston, Ontario: School of Urban and Regional Planning, Queen's University.
{{coord, 44.242, N, 76.516, W, type:landmark, display=title Bus stations in Ontario Shopping malls in Ontario Shopping malls established in 1955 2004 disestablishments in Ontario Buildings and structures in Kingston, Ontario 1955 establishments in Ontario Buildings and structures demolished in 2004

History

Bus terminal

Anchors & majors

See also

References